Evolution

Why creationists love Meyer’s dragon

This is a dragon, “as it was recovered in the hands of the engineer Cornelius Meyer” — at least according to the inscription in the picture. Said picture comes from a book written by Meyer, himself, in 1696. On the book’s cover is an etching of the dragon as he purports it looked — alive…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 8

New study of mammalian evolution reveals one of our earliest ancestors

This small and furry scampering insect-eater lies at the base of the family tree for humans and most mammals, according to the largest-yet study of mammalian evolution. The agile animal is the earliest among placental mammals — the largest branch of the mammal tree consisting of more than 5,100 living species. Only marsupials, such as…

io9 Jennifer Viegas - Discovery News Feb 7

This handsome sea creature is where crocodiles came from

Introducing Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos, a marine super-predator that lived over 163 million years ago. It looks like a cross between a dolphin and a crocodile — and for good reason. Scientists say it’s a transitional species that separated marine crocodiles from their larger, more fearsome relatives. The fossil was discovered way back in the early 1900s,…

io9 George Dvorsky Jan 29

Can you learn to taste numbers, smell words, or hear colors?

Do you know anybody who experiences synesthesia? Also known as “synesthetes,” they’re people whose cognitive pathways have become jumbled, such that they associate seemingly unrelated senses or mental states with other senses or experiences — hearing colors, for example, or tasting sounds. Scientists still aren’t sure what gives rise to this strange phenomenon and its…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 28

Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way for Navigation

We humans like to think that that we’re the only ones who figured out how to navigate using the stars. But as biologists from South Africa and Sweden recently discovered, the crafty dung beetle does it, too. This poop-obsessed insect uses the star-filled streak of the Milky Way to orient itself along a straight line…

io9 George Dvorsky Jan 24

New resolution would see “Darwin Day” recognized this coming February 12

How cool would it be to set aside a day to celebrate the birth of one of the most important and influential scientists to ever walk this good Earth? That’s exactly what U.S. House Democrat Russ Holt is hoping to establish — and he’s introduced a resolution to Congress that would see February 12, 2013…

io9 George Dvorsky Jan 24

Sexual fungus could be the key to revolutionizing penicillin

Though penicillin was once a miracle cure for bacterial infections ranging from syphilis to staph, it is slowly becoming obsolete. Bacteria are evolving antibiotic resistance, and medicine is racing to keep up by producing new and different forms of the drug. Penicillin and its derivatives come from a fungus called Penicillium chrysogenum. It’s been difficult…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 22

Further evidence that Asians colonized the Americas long before Europeans did

DNA from an ancient fossil reveals that Asians and Native Americans share a common ancestor, which lends further evidence to the theory that people from Asia were the first humans to set foot in the Americas. Researchers in China and Europe sequenced DNA extracted from a 40,000-year-old leg bone (pictured) found in the Tianyuan Cave…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 22

There’s no way that Fringe‘s Observers could really be toe-tappers

Last week saw the third-to-last episode of Fox’s sci-fi family drama Fringe. Despite the somewhat wonky fifth season, for me Fringe has represented the best sci-fi offering on network television since Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse was cancelled. https://gizmodo.com/seriously-fringe-thats-what-youre-going-with-5975462 For the uninitiated, here’s a bit of background (lots more here) required for today’s pedantic adventure. Warning if…

Television Jason G. Goldman - Scientific American Jan 17

Go home, evolution. You’re drunk.

Seen here is a blobfish. Here’s a description of the blobfish from our new favorite tumblr, WTF Evolution?: “Blobfish? So, I’m just making it look like a blob?” “Yeah, basically.” “Can I do a nose? I love doing noses.” “Sure, evolution, whatever.” More awesome here. You’re welcome.

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 17

The Evolutionary Biology of Star Trek

One of the big mysteries of human evolution is what happened to all the humans who shared the planet with Homo sapiens for hundreds of thousands of years. While Homo sapiens was evolving in Africa, there were also tool-making hominins in Europe and Asia, known as Homo erectus, the Denisovans, and the Neanderthals. And let’s…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 16

Finally, an explanation for why our fingers and toes get all pruny when they’re wet

Shriveled fingers and toes are something we’re all familiar with, yet scientists have struggled to explain why it happens. A longstanding theory is that wrinkles are the result of water passing through the outer layer of the skin, causing it to swell. But as neuroscientist Mark Changizi pointed out a few years ago, it’s clearly…

io9 George Dvorsky Jan 9

Wrinkly Fingers Evolved to Help You Grip Wet Objects

If you’ve ever sat in a bath staring at your fingers as they wrinkle involuntarily, you’re in good company. Now, a team of scientists has worked out why it happens. A series of laboratory tests have shown that wrinkles on fingers and toes resulting from water immersion actually improve grip on wet or submerged objects.…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Jan 9

Ancient hominids may have left the trees, but we never abandoned them

If you’re quickly trying to define what sets humans apart from other primates, you might first point to our greater intelligence and our capacity for complex language. The next big difference is that we walk on two feet and stay out of the trees… except, as this video explains, it’s not quite that simple. Part…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 1

Creationist textbooks are garbage, creationist textbooks are garbage, creationist textbooks are garbage

A report issued earlier this year by Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance concluded that U.S. students are failing to bridge the educational chasm separating them from their foreign peers1. “Textbooks” like this one will help ensure that things stay that way: Are the cultural wars between creationism and evolution the only thing…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Dec 28

Watching a face waggle at 1,000 fps is weirdly hypnotic

Staring at this flexcam footage of a man whipping his face-flesh to-and-fro, his lips projected outward in what might be the best impersonation of a lolface ever commited to video, I can’t help but recall something evolutionary biologist Christopher Schneider told us in an interview last month — that the most recent common ancestor of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Dec 21

New Orleans schools ban creationist curriculum, shun Texas revisionist textbooks

Sanity wins this round — at least for six schools in New Orleans. By a unanimous vote, N.O.’s Orleans Parish School Board voted on Tuesday to keep creationism out of its classrooms. Hallelujah. “No teacher of any discipline of science shall teach any aspect of religious faith as science or in a science class,” reads…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Dec 21

Did fist fighting change the course of human evolution?

The human hand is a beautiful product of evolution. Each one a finely crafted arrangement of 27 bones, our hands are among the most dexterous in the animal kingdom, and are every bit as capable of threading a needle as they are grasping the oar of a canoe. But newly published findings suggest our palms…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Dec 20

7 Good Reasons Why There Might Be Life on Other Planets

We have no direct evidence (yet) that there is life on other planets, moons, or in interstellar space. Nevertheless, there are some compelling reasons to believe that eventually we will discover some, perhaps even in our own solar system. Here are seven reasons why scientists believe that life is out there, just waiting to meet…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 17

When pregnancy is caused by more than one father

There are myths about women giving birth to children from two different fathers. A look at genetics today, though, shows that those myths might have originated in truth. It’s called superfecundation. The full term for it is heteropaternal superfecundation. The Greeks probably got the idea from cats and dogs, which can bear litters in which…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 3

Why creationists love Meyer’s dragon

New study of mammalian evolution reveals one of our earliest ancestors

This handsome sea creature is where crocodiles came from

Can you learn to taste numbers, smell words, or hear colors?

Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way for Navigation

New resolution would see “Darwin Day” recognized this coming February 12

Sexual fungus could be the key to revolutionizing penicillin

Further evidence that Asians colonized the Americas long before Europeans did

There’s no way that Fringe‘s Observers could really be toe-tappers

Go home, evolution. You’re drunk.

The Evolutionary Biology of Star Trek

Finally, an explanation for why our fingers and toes get all pruny when they’re wet

Wrinkly Fingers Evolved to Help You Grip Wet Objects

Ancient hominids may have left the trees, but we never abandoned them

Creationist textbooks are garbage, creationist textbooks are garbage, creationist textbooks are garbage

Watching a face waggle at 1,000 fps is weirdly hypnotic

New Orleans schools ban creationist curriculum, shun Texas revisionist textbooks

Did fist fighting change the course of human evolution?

7 Good Reasons Why There Might Be Life on Other Planets

When pregnancy is caused by more than one father

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